Sometimes beiong waitlisted all summer may give you an edge in the next cycle, but it sometimes won't. I was waitlisted late by Stanford and Vanderbilt one year and the next years, it did nothing for me. Vandy waitlisted me again and Stanford rejected me in January. I made the mistake of not changing anything the next year, figuring that I just needed to ride it out. I thought I was a shoe-in. I was wrong.

The key is to make sure you behave as though you were rejected by these schools, that is, come back next year even stronger, and apply earlier. If you apply early but without changing anything, you are likely to be disappointed. adcoms may think you're taking an admit for granted b/c you know you were a good candidate the year before. And waitlisted candidates ARE good candidates.

Write a better essay, make your resume as organized and well-worded as you can, and, in the case of Northwestern, Texas and Vandy, interview if you didn't before.

The key is to make sure you behave as though you were rejected by these schools, that is, come back next year even stronger, and apply earlier. If you apply early but without changing anything, you are likely to be disappointed. adcoms may think you're taking an admit for granted b/c you know you were a good candidate the year before. And waitlisted candidates ARE good candidates.

Write a better essay, make your resume as organized and well-worded as you can, and, in the case of Northwestern, Texas and Vandy, interview if you didn't before.

I strongly agree. I was waitlisted/rejected at quite a few schools, and I reworked my PS, changed my resume, retook the LSAT, and applied early. While obviously the LSAT helped (I jumped significantly), the other factors probably didn't hurt.

I did ok on the test, so probably wouldnt improve that much, and probably won't bother. Guess i'm'a skip it this year, and try again. _really_ want that preferred school.

You have five months to prepare for October! Go for it. Work hard. You can do it. Sometimes it's enough to show the adcoms that you are trying to improve and that you really want to go. Think long and hard about waiting b/c you're still "warm" right now. It might be easier for you to improve your LSAT score now than after you've taken a year off. On the other hand, LSAC does have that three-in-two rule, so you don't want to use up your eligibility. Think it over. But consider that five months is enough time for a 10-15 point jump. People have done it.

I did ok on the test, so probably wouldnt improve that much, and probably won't bother. Guess i'm'a skip it this year, and try again. _really_ want that preferred school.

You have five months to prepare for October! Go for it. Work hard. You can do it. Sometimes it's enough to show the adcoms that ypou are trying to improve and that you really want to go. Think long and hard about waiting b/c you're still "warm" right now. It might be easier for you to improve your LSAT score now than after you've taken a year off. On the other hand, LSAC does have that three-intwo rule, so you don't want to use up your eligibility. Think it over. But consider that five months is enough time for a 10-15 point jump. People have done it.

Yeah, the OP should at the very least consider it. While I didn't jump 10-15 points, it was close to that. (At the same time, the statistics show that this is fairly rare. So the OP should see if he can improve his study techniques, etc.)

I did ok on the test, so probably wouldnt improve that much, and probably won't bother. Guess i'm'a skip it this year, and try again. _really_ want that preferred school.

You have five months to prepare for October! Go for it. Work hard. You can do it. Sometimes it's enough to show the adcoms that you are trying to improve and that you really want to go. Think long and hard about waiting b/c you're still "warm" right now. It might be easier for you to improve your LSAT score now than after you've taken a year off. On the other hand, LSAC does have that three-in-two rule, so you don't want to use up your eligibility. Think it over. But consider that five months is enough time for a 10-15 point jump. People have done it.

Yeah, the OP should at the very least consider it. While I didn't jump 10-15 points, it was close to that. (At the same time, the statistics show that this is fairly rare. So the OP should see if he can improve his study techniques, etc.)

Yup. I can suggest some materials that would be a big help. My first official test was 145 (nerves and lack of concentration, alone, probably cost me 8-10 points). I now have a 163...an 18 point jump. And, even though I am already admitted to some top-notch schools, I am re-taking it next month to see if I can bring it up another five points or so.

Put in four-five hours per day every day, at least early on. Take at least three timed exams per week during your final two months of prep.

Start slowly. Lead off by reading the PowerScore books and doing all exercises thoroughly, studying the explanations. Begin with the Reading Comprehension Bible for three weeks. Everything on the LSAT, including LG rules, revolves around "comprehension". Read and re-read; repeat the lessons and study daily. Reading Comp is your foundation for the whole test.

The next two weeks do the Logical Reasoning Bible. Then in your final two weeks read the Logic Games Bible. Follow the approaches to the questions, but use the McGraw Hills Book to learn the most efficient diagramming techniques. Again...DO ALL EXERCISES and read all explanations. Note which questions give you the most trouble and devote extra time to them. Always concentrate on your weaknesses, not your strengths

Begin using your SuperPrep Book after about a month...read it at night for 15-20 minutes before bed and in the morning. Read the explanations for the answers. You will start to notice the subtle patterns in the wrong answers. For example, in necessary assumption questions, the wrong answers often have ambiguous words in them, such as most, some, many, often, etc. And you know how to use the reversal/negation test, I am sure. Learn to spot wrong answers quickly. There's almost always a single word that gives it away. And you can use negation in "inference" questions, as well.

During your third month, begin doing the Next-10 and start timing yourself. Learn pacing. Take advantage of the fact that you don't have to do questions in order. In LR, the questions generally get more difficult towards the end of the section (last 5-6 questions), but not always. in the other sections, you should scan the section and go for what looks attractive, but be wary of the fact that the test-makers will trick you with passages that look easy until the second paragraph, and vice versa.

Set aside a day for "Lab", where you work only on one section (LG, RC or LR) for that day (4-5 hours). Remember to work on your weaknesses more than you work on your strengths. That might seem redundant, but you'd be surprized; it takes discipline to do that.

Develop a schedule and stick to it. Don't worry about speed early on...worry about understanding the question types and how to approach them. Speed will come.

I promise you that buying the materials I recommended above will help you. I might have improved more had I worked on the LSAT for longer than 2.5 months last year.